Rainbow & I went down to "The Brook" in Swaythling, Southampton last night to see The Hamsters play. Great venue. Not been there before. Presumably an old pub that's been gutted & refurbished with part of the upstairs floor removed to give a large 3 sided balcony looking down onto the stage.
The ground floor was heaving with people so we found a good spot upstairs. A great night. The Hamsters were excellent as usual. Very professional & slick though Rainbow wasn't keen on Slim's screaming Hendrix guitar solos. Several camera teams there so I presume they were filming a new video/DVD. Their party piece -lead & bass guitarists walking down into the audience & passing through the crowd, (using the magic of radio mics), with their guitars illuminated with coloured LEDs, before swapping instruments midway through ZZ Top's Sharp Dressed Man, climbing back on stage, then the lead guitarist playing bass swapping places with the drummer, went down a storm as always. Well worth seeing if you haven't caught 'em yet.
Wilko Johnson was in support, who I believe, (I'm sure I'll be corrected), used to play & write for Dr Feelgood? Quite manic stage presence -all mad staring eyes & strutting up & down but a great stompy Blues guitarist, ably supported by his bass man, a really scary looking little guy who used to play with The Blockheads.
Absolute star of the night though was John Otway. I've seen him before & he's even crazier now. Totally barking but a real show man. Not sure how you'd describe him really. Looks like a bank manager or somebody's Dad who's got lost & somehow ended up on the stage, but from the moment he launched into his 70s punk hits & ripped his shirt open, sending buttons richocheting into the audience, he ruled the place. Had a weird electronic feed-back gizzmo that made all sorts of strange noises when he passed his hands over it, which he was a real virtuoso on, plus a set of electronic drum pads that he put in his pockets before performing a great drum solo by beating himself up! Would do just about anything to entertain the audience, including somersaults onto the stage from the top of a step ladder while playing guitar! He was accompaneid by an Angus Young lookalike on lead guitar doing screaming solos from the top of the same ladder.
Highlight of the night had to be Otway leading the slightly bemused looking Hamsters & Johnson's band in a great version of the Osmonds' "Crazy Horses" with him taking centre stage with his feed-back machine, a mad disco track, "Burn Baby Burn" & finishing off with The Blockheads' "Hit me with your rythm stick" at full pelt with the stage crammed with all 3 bands -3 lead guitarists, 2 basses, 2 drummers & the utterly loopy Otway on vocals.
Brilliant. They're playing a different venue almost every night from now until Christmas. Thoroughly recommended.
Lots of tribute bands coming up at The Brook-
The Bog Rolling Stones.
Dirty DC.
Whole Lotta Led.
La Vida Santana.
Bon Jovi Experience etc.
The Sensational Alex Harvey band, The Saw Doctors, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Dukes -coo, haven't seen them since Knebworth '79. We'll be going back soon I think.
-Manky Monkey Music journo.
